What to Watch

The Best Alternatives to Sappy Holiday Programming

Screaming children, too much pie, hearing about your grandpa’s gastroenterological issues: there will be many reasons this week to escape to a couch and soak in screen time. But what if you’re tired of Frosty the Snowman and It’s a Wonderful Life? What if you don’t feel like binge-watching the 12 new Hallmark Channel Christmas flicks, because, when have you ever felt like that? We’ve got your holiday viewing covered with these four alternatives to traditional Christmas fare.

Watch the second season of The Wrong Mans on Hulu—which, although hard to believe, is both funnier and more exciting than the previous two suggestions.

The Wrong Mans is a true comedy-action hybrid, a genre basically unknown in the United States. The show, about two drab everymen accidentally caught up in international espionage, is both a legitimate thriller with explosive twists and harrowing chase sequences, and also a laugh-out-loud-48-hours-later sitcom. The BBC and Hulu co-produced series looks incredible, from sweeping shots of dreary British countrysides to the aforementioned fiery crashes. Another reason to watch? You can form an early opinion on James Corden, the Into the Woods star who will follow Craig Ferguson, in March, as the next host of The Late Late Show on CBS; Corden co-created, wrote, and stars in The Wrong Mans, with Mathew Baynton, whom he met while working on the film Telstar: The Joe Meek Story.

The second season—four half-hour episodes, all available on December 24—picks up right after the first season ends. And since the BBC first commissioned the season as Christmas specials, Baynton and Corden spun a holiday plotline into their sequel. Their characters Sam and Phillip, respectively, are trying to get home by Christmas. Unfortunately, that means escaping the witness-protection program and the small South Texas town to which it banished them, plus the drug lords, assassins, and crooked officials they encounter along the way.

Baynton and Corden said, in a short video made by Hulu, that unlike traditional sitcom structure, they wanted this second season to illustrate a change in their characters; they wanted the events of the first season to have affected Sam and Phil. But don’t worry; in many ways they’re still the same as well. Once again, Sam and Phil are never the actors in their own fates. And you can expect a slew of humorously unlikely coincidences, as well as a fantastic supporting cast, including the very funny American actor and comedian John Ross Bowie. We’re even treated to a couple of embarrassing repeat scenarios for each of our unlikely heroes. And, most critically, in spite of gunfire, prison riots, and car bombs, The Wrong Mans is still a show primarily about two downtrodden blokes and the relationship between them.

Since the new four episodes will be released at once, you can watch them back to back. And let’s be honest, you probably will. The good news is that’s only two hours; if Grandpa is still talking about his colon, your family won’t even have noticed you were gone.

And finally, your final option:

Watch the family dog take a little trip after it finds your brother’s “magic” brownies.

O.K., so, in other words, The Wrong Mans is the only holiday programming we suggest. But if you do witness No. 4 on this list, please post a video to YouTube.